Officials with Winnipeg Harvest and the Manitoba Association of Food Banks are hoping to raise both public awareness of the work being done by Manitoba food banks and funds to help support that work.
In an effort to raise public awareness of the work being done by the province’s food banks and raise money to support that work, Winnipeg cyclist Ken Livingstone set out last Friday on Food Cycle 2009.
The province-wide cycling tour will see him stop in approximately 20 communities along the Trans Canada Trail with supporters being invited to take part in pork barbecues in support of Manitoba food banks at five of those stops.
Livingstone says the tour will cover almost 13 hundred kilometers.
I’m the cyclist behind it and en route there are going to be other cyclists jumping in and jumping out with me just for a day or two and some of those people will have sponsorships.
I of course picked up personal sponsorships as well from friends and family and co-workers.
The sponsorships also come from Manitoba Pork.
They’re involved as our principle sponsor putting on barbecues and with huge donations of pork to the different food banks as well.
They gave us a tonne of sausage.
Literally a tonne of sausage was given to us and, at a bunch of events along the way here, they’ve got their Manitoba Pork barbecues out and are doing pork-on-a-bun for lunches and then doing breakfast, pork sausages and pancakes and that sort of thing in the different communities.
In each place we can raise money and put it toward that local food bank so that the money stays in the community.
Besides that we also have Certigard locations, Bikes and Beyond and Banks of Montreal and they’re making donations to their local food banks whether it be in Neepawa or Brandon or Morris or Selkirk or where ever the place may be.
Food Cycle 2009 is scheduled to conclude at Shoal lake June 7th.
Livingstone says the goal is to raise 30 thousand dollars during the tour.
Source: Farmscape.Ca
